GammaTron: *sitting on a beanbag chair, looking at Archie Sonic the Hedgehog comics* Boy, Archie sure shot themselves in the foot when it came to not doing contracts correctly and making sure SEGA owned all the characters prior to what Penders did. Especially in the Endangered Species issues of the comic where they had to start hiding them away/sending them into another Zone.
SZ: Aye...and so many unanswered and unfinished stories because of Penders...he royally screwed Archie over...and to top that, we never saw another Sonic chronicles game because Penders sued SEGA because it 'ripped off his characters'...and he's still attacking IDW and stuff, claiming both Rough and Tumble(mostly Rough) is a sad rip-off of Geoffrey St. John.
GT: Which does not make sense. For one, despite that whole 'spy for Naugus' bit, he was a bit of a decent character. Heck, even was trying to make up for it all until Naugus took over his body.
SZ: Yup...and lets not forget that before the IDW Sonic comic came out, he said that it was gonna flop miserably as IDW is 'worse than both Marvel and DC combined'
GT: And yet, people love IDW Sonic and it has yet to 'flop miserably,' so suck it, Penders.
SZ: Aye...but enough ripping on Penders, let's focus on this...a remake of our...well my old Azure Rebellion story.
GT: Indeed. Now, instead of Ben 10 and BlazBlue because...well...honestly we've used them more than enough and hope others will start to use them for Sonic stories down the line, we'll be using just one other series to mix with this. Which you can tell what series it is since you read the title for this fanfic.
SZ:. And so far we've only done one RWBY fic ala Grimm Eclipse with Ex-Aid, so this'll help increase our repertoire of RWBY stories.
GT: Indeed. So...a World of Chaos...prepare to meet a World of Bloody Evolution.
Disclaimer: We do not own Sonic the Hedgehog. The Franchise is owned by SEGA. We do not own RWBY. The franchise is owned by RoosterTeeth. We are the creators of OCs used for this story.
GT: And now…*gets tackled by SZ* GAH! *thrown into a closet* What the heck, man?!
SZ: No! None of that! We…*flinches at the pitch-forks and torches*wait wait wait! We're not doing a Nartuo syndrome for Jaune in this story!
Mob: Liar! You're gonna make him op like Naruto with the Chaos Emeralds and have him get all the girls from both RWBY and Sonic!
SZ:...On second thought...GT?
GT: ...No one better make a joke about what I'm gonna do. *comes out of the closet* ...Seriously, I hear one joke about that…*shakes head before calmly walking up to the mob* The people down the street are hanging up anti-Arkos posters and hanging up posters of Jaune as a Super Saiyan. *the Mob runs off down the street* You're welcome, SZ.
SZ: Thanks...now let's begin the story.
GT: Yep. *pushes a button and a raid siren goes off before a mushroom cloud went off down the street* ...And we should run. *grabs SZ and hides in a bunker before the explosion hits the studio*
"'Hey, Jaune, wanna take our teams out to Forever Falls for camping on our week off of school before the Vytal Festival begins?' 'Hey Jaune, can you help carry a few bags? Don't worry, it's just a few.' 'Just a few' my keister…" a voice grumbled underneath a large pile of bags, the majority of them being white with a silver snowflake pattern on them, beside an older teen in green and black with black hair sporting a pink highlight in it, the only things visible on the carrier of the bags being their jeans, a sword in a scabbard on his hip, and black and white shoes.
"You do tend to have issues saying 'no' to Weiss," the black-haired teen noted, carrying a camping backpack the same color as his clothes.
"Shut up, Ren," Jaune growled as he poked his head out of the pile, revealing he was a teen with short blond hair and annoyed blue eyes.
"Think of this as muscle training," Ren calmly replied, "Or we could ask Nora to be in charge of your strength training again…"
"No. Never again. Where she got that caged baby Goliath from, let alone two, and covered them in cloth and made them into dumbbells she demanded I lift, I never want to learn."
"Hurry up, ya slowpokes!" a perky girl with short orange hair in pinks, white, bits of silver armor, and a cutout on her chest shaped like a heart shouted up ahead.
"Slow and steady, Nora," Ren replied.
"But I don't wanna go slow and steady~! We're so close to those trees with all the yummy sap we can use for pancakes!"
"I think you have a problem, Nora…" Jaune deadpanned.
"I don't have a problem! You have a problem!" Nora huffed, "I can stop whenever I want...I just chose not to."
"...I blame you," Jaune deadpanned to Ren, who merely shrugged.
"Settle down, Nora," a taller teenage girl advised gently, sporting long red hair pulled into a ponytail and wearing bronze armor that accentuated her curves with a shield and xiphos on her hips, "We'll get there."
"But Pyrrha~ They're so slow~! Not even sloths are as slow as them right now!"
"I can't believe Ruby convinced us to spend the last week before the tournament starts camping and not training," a girl with long white hair pulled into a side-ponytail in a white and ice-blue outdoors dress muttered, walking between a taller, shapely girl with long flowing blondd locks in a yellow tube top, a brown mini-jacket, and black shorts and a girl with long black hair with a black ribbon on her head wearing a white sleeveless shirt under black legless overalls...who was reading a book.
"It's Ruby. What did you expect, Weiss?" the ribbon-wearing girl deadpanned.
"Yeah. This is gonna be great! We can make nightly campfires, tell spooky stories, scare the pants off the boys…" the blonde noted.
"We're right here, Yang," Jaune deadpanned.
"And I'm the only one who gets to make Ren's pants go off!" Nora declared.
"Oh~?" the blonde asked with a teasing smile as Ren facepalmed while Nora began to sputter while her face was a bright pink.
"Th...that came out wrong…" Nora muttered.
"Sure it didn't~" Yang smirked in a teasing manner.
"Come on, guys! It's right over this hill!" a teenage girl that seemed to be two years younger than the others exclaimed, her red cloak fluttering over her black and silver combat skirt, blouse, and stockings while her silver eyes were filled with excitement while her bouncing in place ahead of them made her black hair with faded red tips bounce, "Come on! We gotta get tents set up and get people on jobs to make the camp ready for a week of fun!" a muffled bark went off from her bag, "Ah…"
"...Ruby, did you bring Zwei with you?" Yang asked.
"...Velvet had to cancel at the last minute because of an emergency assignment Coco got Team CFVY," Ruby quietly admitted, looking like a kid who got caught with a hand in the cookie jar, as a black and brown corgi poked its head out of the bag on her back, panting happily.
"Aw~" Nora cooed, zipping over and had the corgi in a cuddle, "He's so fwuffy~!" she gasped, "You were going to deny us something so cute and adorable for a whole week? For shame, Yang!"
"Hey!" Yang exclaimed as Nora put Zwei down.
"So what was this emergency assignment?" Blake asked.
"No idea," Ruby replied, "Coco just said it was confidential as she scooped up Velvet when she was going to tell me what it was."
'Darn you, Coco…' Blake thought as Zwei waddled around, sniffing the ground, before he started growling, baring his teeth and having his ears point backwards.
"Hmm? Something up, Zwei?" Yang blinked.
Zwei began to bark before running over the hill. Everyone began to follow...with Jaune being the slowest due to all the luggage he had. At the top of the hill, they looked to see the clearing they were going to camp at...was filled with cages with them being in time to see a wolf-like creature with bones growing out of its body stab itself in the chest in one of the cages and collapse, dissolving into black ashes of sorts. A black-tinted green energy grabbed the ashes and shot over to a clear, plexiglass barrel filled to the brim with the ashes in the center of them all. Beside that barrel was a strange creature. It looked like a pure white echidna that stood on two front-facing feet. His fur was done up in dreadlocks with black circuit-like markings on the two dreadlocks on the sides of his face and jagged black lines seeming to come from a gold diamond-shaped mark on his forehead. A long, flowing, tattered black cloak donned him, sporting a gold star-in-a-circle insignis on the back with a heavy gold, crescent moon-shaped clasp. A black double crescent-shaped mark was on his chest while grey wraps covered his hands and feet with black metal covering his lower arms and legs with multiple gold rings on them. One hand was raised, the energy coming from it before it faded away. His gold eyes in black sclera narrowed as he scowled, the tiny bits of metal on the sides of his muzzle and his tiny red-rimmed glasses reflecting a bit of light.
"Still not enough…" he noted, "These creatures keep ending themselves before I can get a Warp Ring out, but why? What makes them off themselves and dissolve to ashes? Could it be..." he moved towards a cage that held one of the creatures, "Is the beng who created you purposfully making you commit suicide to make sure they don't lose control of you or for others to learn your secrets?" he held up his hand and the energy shot out, managing to grab the arms before they could stab themselves…
*SNAP*
...only for them to twist their neck enough to break it. He caught the ashes and put them into the barrel and scowled as he spoke again, "So it seems to be that. You must be seeing through their eyes if you had them do this." he closed the top of the barrel before looking towards a tree in time to see a tiny raven-like creature with a bone 'mask' growing out of its head, "I will find you and your origins and make these 'Grimm' my own." he held up a glowing hand towards it only for the bird to fly behind the tree and go off, "..."
"Who is that?" Ruby pondered.
"Is he wearing some sorta animal costume?" Yang pondered.
"No...That doesn't seem like synthetic fur…" Blake whispered.
"...A rare species of Faunus then?" Nora guessed.
"I've never seen a Faunus like that," Blake replied.
"Why is he gathering the remains of Grimm?" Weiss pondered as Jaune finally reached the top.
"Ugh...whoo...What's with...all the...running?" Jaune panted before tripping on Zwei, "GWAH!" he tumbled down the hill, sending the luggage into the air.
"Hm?" the echidna looked up in time to see the luggage falling towards him, "!" he swung an arm and the black-tinted green energy formed a shield of sorts before him, letting them bounce off and land atop of Jaune and gave him view of the others, "Tch. Humans… They're as infuriating as their Overlander descendants and Mobians."
Zwei snarled before running down the hill, barking at the echidna. The corgi jumped onto one of the cases that had popped open and grabbed a red crystal in it before swallowing it. He jumped at the echidna and his fur began to glow before…
*BOOM!*
The echidna skidded back, a shield made of the energy before him, "An exploding corgi? Fascinating…Seems these 'Grimm' aren't the only unusual things in this Zone." he shot into the smoke from the explosion before a yelp went off and Zwei shot out of it and tumbled along the ground to hit the pile of suitcases, knocking them around and letting Jaune out from under them, "Far more durable than the mutts in my Zone as well."
"Ugh...Zone?" Jaune groaned as he stood up...only to tense when he noticed the Echidna, "?!"
"Oh, you're still alive. Seems humans are more durable as well. ...Pity," the echidna snorted before the others joined, pulling out weapons with Ruby pulled out a red box that opened up into a sniper rifle, the yellow bracelets on Yang's wrists transforming into gauntlets, Ren pulling out a pair of green sickle/automatic pistols, Nora a metal sledgehammer, Pyrrha her shield and xiphos, Blake a serrated cleaver/holster and a katana/pistol connected by a black ribbon, and Weiss a rapier with a revolver filled with multicolored sand-like material in the revolver part, "And they have weapons...with some being able to transform." he rolled his eyes while signing out, "Wonderful…"
"Who are you…?" Ruby asked, keeping a steady and careful eye on the Echidna, "or rather...what are you?"
"Hmph...As if I should respond to a child…" he huffed, "But...I might as well humor you before I make my leave…" he stated as he pulled out one of the small rings on his person, tossing it up as it began to expand in size, "I am Dr. Finitevus…a 'tourist' I suppose." the green energy in his hand turned pitch black before he blasted the expanded ring with it, causing it to light up with the energy as the inside of the ring turned into a swirling cosmic vortex of sorts, "A pity my only 'purchase' was a barrel of ashes. Was hoping for live specimens, but I'll take what I can get for now." he grabbed the barrel and easily picked it up despite it being twice his height and thrice his width, "But that's what return trips are for."
He began to jump back only for Ruby to pull the trigger of her rifle. A round went off and struck the ring, causing it to spin around and a crack to form. It began to spark from the crack and Finitevus' eyes widened as a suction began to form.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!" he snapped, spinning around to glare at Ruby just before it stopped spinning and faced them, the suction becoming far more powerful.
"Oh I am getting major red flags right n-WOAH!" Jaune yelped as the suction began to pull him and the others towards the ring.
The luggage was first to go through, making the echidna perform some impressive parkour to avoid getting hit by it all before landing on the top of the biggest of the white cases and went through. Ruby's rifle unfolded further and transformed into a massive scythe that she quickly stabbed into the ground and grabbed Yang's arm. Yang grabbed Blake's, who grabbed Weiss's, who grabbed a dazed Zwei. Pyrrha managed to grab onto the scythe and caught Jaune's leg, who quickly grabbed Nora's arm as Ren grabbed her free arm.
"WHY DID YOU SHOOT THE RING?!" Weiss shouted.
"I THOUGHT IT'D BOUNCE AWAY! NOT DO THIS!" Ruby replied before looking down, "Uh-oh."
"WHAT?" Yang called...just before the suction pulled the scythe out of the ground.
"I NEVER GOT MY SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP~!" Nora wailed just as they were pulled into the ring before it flickered and detonated in a blast of electricity, leaving behind mangles molten cages and a ring of soot in the center of a clearing in the middle of a forest in eternal fall.
Thunder rumbled as dark clouds hung over a ruined city. Standing upon a set of wooden docks, a figure stood among what seemed to be Tasmanian devils. The figure was a Tasmanian devil as well, yet his fur was a rich purple with his furry muzzle being a deep beige. He tapped a foot, both covered in green shoes with metal bands going over the insteps and circular bumps on them, and crossed his arms over the white jagged line on his chest, his gloves green like his shoes and sported metal plates with bumps on the backs of the gloves. His yellow eyes narrowed as he gazed at the city before him and the feral creatures around him.
"Albion...Home of those bastards…" he growled before patting the head of one of the tasmanian devils, "Easy now...I loathe this place as much as any of you do for what they've done to us all." he looked out at it once more, "But loathe it for not much longer, my kin." he held up a small bag and took out a sparking ring from it, "Like I spoke of before, with these Warp Rings I charged from the Master Emerald and tested that first one on the 'Guardian's' mate and that pesky bug with her...All that will remain is the Guardian and all the others will end through starvation in a Zone that is merely an endless void." the feral beasts let out growls and snarls of anticipation, "A Zone where there is no day, no night...there is no time except from those who go in there. There is nothing but...well...nothing. There is no water to drink, no dirt to grow seeds, no technology to let them build a way out. A true hell...perfect for what they did to us. And no one will be th-" he was interrupted by a Warp Ring that opened up above him, "...What?" the tasmanian devils yelped and scattered as Thrash was buried beneath a pile of bags and suitcases-the majority being white with a silver snowflake emblem printed on them-with Finitevus on the biggest of them landing on the top and sent the ring in the humanoid tasmanian devil's hand rolling away and the bag to go into the air, "GAH!"
"Albion?" Finitevus pondered before catching the bag, "Why are my spare Warp Rings here? ...They've been charged." he heard a groan under the pile of bags and suitcases and spotted a pair of green gloved hands, "Aw look~It's the filthy mutt~" he jumped off the pile and pulled the devil out of the pile and glared at his dazed face, "I don't know how you got my Warp Rings nor how you charged them...but I am not amused." he threw him into the water by the dock before another ring came off his left leg, expanding into another portal, "I may need to destroy my labs and rebuild in new locations." he jumped into it, "Thanks for being a pain as always, you stupid inbred mutt."
The ring vanished just as the eight teens and one corgi came out of the portal, screaming. They landed on the luggage and the Warp Ring above them flickered before vanishing in sparkles of light. The charged Warp Ring the tasmanian devil had rolled towards a flight of stairs and began to bounce down the steps, unseen by anyone. It bounced when it reached the bottom of the steps and went into the air where it expanded quickly. At the docks, Ruby was the first to get up.
"Is everyone okay…?" Ruby asked with a groan.
"My back…" Jaune whimpered.
"I blame you…" Weiss groaned.
"Whoo! What a rush! Let's go again!" Nora whooped.
"Nora…" Ren spoke up.
"Hm?"
"No."
"...Boo," Nora pouted, crossing her arms and puffing her cheeks.
"..." Blake was completely frozen.
"..." Zwei panted, lying on her chest with a wagging tail, before licking her face.
"?!" Blake moved away, leaving Zwei on a shadowy double of herself, and hid behind the luggage, peeking out to look at him, "Reow…"
"...What was that?" Yang blinked.
"N-Nothing!" Blake instantly denied, now hiding on top of a broken building, "...Wait...Where are we?"
"I...have no idea," Pyrrha replied, looking around as thunder rumbled above, "But it looks like a storm's brewing."
"And we have company," Yang added as the tasmanian devil-like creatures began to hiss and snarl at them, slowly approaching with fangs bared, "And not the fun kind."
Zwei hopped off the shadowy Blake as it dissipated and ran over towards them, growling in return as he assumed a threatening pose. The tasmanian devils returned his growls with snarls. Zwei ran over to one of the white suitcases that had opened from the impact and pulled out a white rock and ate it. He charged at the creatures and jumped into the middle of them before…
*BOOM!*
...sliding back over to the others on a sheet of ice, bits of snow stuck to his fur. After a few moments, he got up, panting happily with a waggy tail while looking up at Ruby and Yang. Aside from those two, everyone else looked between the mound of snow and ice with the creatures stuck in the ice, back to Zwei, then to the ice and snow, and then back to the corgi that was now being cuddled and praised by Ruby and Yang.
"...What was that?"
"His Semblance," Yang replied, "We give him Dust and he explodes based on what Dust he ate!"
"Good Zwei! Good corgi~!" Ruby cooed, earning a happy bark from the corgi.
"Well, as much as I'd like to praise Zwei as well, we have important things to do here," Weiss noted, "We need to figure out where we are and get to shelter before it starts raining." she pulled out a white rectangular device with a gold diamond in the middle before it split down the middle and expanded to reveal a hard-light screen being produced, "Now let's see...There's no signal." she tapped on it, "...Still no signal. But how is that possible? With the positions of all four CCTSs, there shouldn't be a place that doesn't get signal outside of being too deep underground."
"...Unless...we're no longer on R-" Jaune began before hearing a growling sound, "...Please tell me that was someone's stomach."
A wet smacking sound made them look at the end of the docks to see a green glove on it. A second joined before the purple tasmanian devil pulled himself up with a snarl, red veins visible in the whites of his rage-filled eyes. He snorted and snarled, breathing heavily as he looked around before spotting Weiss's outfit which had the same emblem as the white suitcases.
"YOU!" he snarled.
"Hm?" Weiss looked around before pointing at herself.
"Is this stuff your stuff?" he demanded, pointing at the white suitcases, still giving heavy breaths of anger.
"Yes, it…" she began to reply before seeing the ice and snow...with the tasmanian devil creatures in it.
"?! My kin…" he gasped before narrowing his eyes at her, "That's it...You did something to bring that damn Finitevus here, drop all that junk on me…"
"Hey!" Weiss exclaimed.
"...made me lose the Warp Rings that I charged to pay back those bastards that came from those that destroyed my entire race, and now you've harmed what became of my kin!" he continued, red coating his vision, "You're…" he inhaled deeply before roaring loudly, "DEAD MEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!-!-!-!-!"
As he roared, a massive concussive wave erupted from his mouth. Pyrrha grabbed Jaune by his belt and threw him up to where Blake was as everyone jumped out of the way, letting the luggage be struck and sent scattering into the city. The devil charged at Weiss just as she landed. The revolver part of her rapier spun around before the grey container on it began to glow. A glyph appeared beneath her feet as the devil jumped at her, fist reeled back. He swung and the glyph pulsed...causing him to miss due to Weiss being sent flying over him and landing on a black glyph in the air that she used to jump away. His fist struck the ground, shattering it in a small radius around him.
"Grr...great. These Overlanders...no wait. They have five fingers a...n-nevermind! They seem to have powers as well…" the Tasmanian devil growled.
"Hey, not our fault those dogs of yours attacked us! You should be a better pet owner!" Yang argued.
"Pet owner? Pet owner?!" the devil snarled, glaring at her now, "Listen, Blondie! They're not dogs. They are Devil Dogs. What's more? They're not…" he inhaled before roaring, "PEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTSSSSSSSSSS!-!-!-!"
Yang grunted as the concussive waves slammed into her, sending her slamming into a wall of the building Blake and Jaune were on. The devil roared as he charged and swung his fist at Yang, slamming her through the wall and then out the other side of the structure before following after her with a frenzied roar.
"...Okay. This guy's raising some red flags...and…" Jaune began before noticing some small pieces of blonde hair fall to the ground, "...Hoo boy."
"Think she'll notice?" Blake asked.
"No clue," Jaune replied as he ran to the other side of the roof to see the two slugging at one another, "That is one grumpy furry guy. ...Why are we running into weird Faunus today?"
"I don't think they're Faunus," Blake replied as the devil got a sucker punch in on Yang, sending her back through another part of the wall and out the other side, "And I think we're going to get an answer to my question."
"..." Jaune looked over to see Yang lying on the ground, staring at the pieces of hair, "...Yep. We are." he turned away from Yang to look out, "I think I see a group coming this way."
"Huh?" Blake looked at him as the devil jumped through the new hole.
"DIE!" the devil roared, swinging a fist...only for Yang to catch it, the impact making a small crater, "What?"
"Grr…" Yang growled, a fiery aura beginning to surround her as she raised her head up, her eyes glowing a fiery red as the aura flared up.
"...Bloody h-" the devil began before Yang gripped his fist, causing a snapping sound to fill the air, "GH?!"
"You…" Yang growled out as her hair seemed to ignite as she reeled her free fist back, causing a cocking noise to come from the gauntlet, "...PURPLE BASTARD!"
*KA-BANG!*
The devil cried out as he crashed through the holes in the building, then through the wall of the building behind that, out the next one...and then repeated one more time. Yang jumped and swung her fists down, causing bursts to shoot out of her gauntlets to propel her through the holes in time to do a right hook to the face of the rising tasmanian devil, knocking him further away.
"Gah! Sonnuva…" the devil hissed, grabbing his chest that now sported burns while rubbing the cheek that she punched, burnt as well, "Are...Are those frickin' shotguns in her gauntlets? And what kinda ammo is she usin'? Feels like she's slammin' me with pure fire!"
"He touched the hair…" Ruby whispered, she and the others peeking out from their hiding spot, "Should not have done that.." Zwei whimpered on her head, "I'm scared, too."
Yang charged at the devil, reeling a fist back for another punch. He moved to the side, barely avoiding the punch as the ground behind them exploded from the shot she fired. He let out a roar, managing to hit her with another concussive blast but barely made her skid back much to his shock. Said shock, sadly for him, left him open for a barrage of punches with the last shots igniting his fur.
"GRAGH!" he screamed as he patted at the flames, 'What's goin' on here?! How's she gettin' stronger the longer we're fightin'?! I...I gotta ge...'
*CRUNCH!*
Yang paused in her charge as the devil collapsed, knocked out. Standing over the downed tasmanian devil was an injured pink echidna like Finitevus. She had a tuff of magenta/purple hair on her head while the dreadlock on the left side of her head was made of metal. Silver rings were on two more of her dreadlocks with another on her right arm. Her left arm was completely mechanical. She wore a gold belt on her waist with some cracks in it, a pair of white gloves that were torn up, a ruined black and gunmetal/teal tee, and thigh-high teal combat boots littered in tears and holes. She dropped the large rock in her hands as her pink eyes refused to not look away from the downed brute despite one being swollen shut.
"You...damn...bastard," she growled before looking at Yang as her red eyes turned to lilac and the 'flames' began to die out, "Sorry...about that. Thrash was mine...first, though..."
"...It's...fine," Yang muttered as she lowered her fist.
"...Still, you roughed him up pretty good," the female echidna noted, looking down at the downed devil, "Hopefully he'll stay down while I contact Sonic and the others. Things are already bad enough right now...We don't need Trash causing a genocide of an entire species."
"Beg pardon?" Yang blinked at that.
"Yeah…" she nodded before kicking Thrash a bit, "He was gonna leave someone important to me as the sole surviving member of our species while the rest of it-including myself-starves in a small Pocket Zone he created."
"Pocket...Zone?" Yang repeated.
"Julie-Su! I found some clothes for you!"
Yang looked up to see a humanoid honey bee fly over. She had a pair of big pink eyes with shoulder-length blond hair done in a bob-cut. She wore a pair of yellow-green shoes and a dress with tiny yellow pom-poms on her shoes. Over the dress was an aviator's jacket zipped up with the sleeves rolled up with a bee emblem on the back and a black choker with a silver bee emblem on that. The echidna raised a brow when she noticed the old radio headset on her head.
"Going for a new look, Saffron?" Julie-Su asked.
"My last set was ruined fighting that…" the bee began before looking down and yelping, jumping into Yang's arms while dropping the sack she had been carrying, "AH! THRASH!" she looked up at Yang, "AH!" she jumped out of her arms and bowed, "S-Sorry! So sorry!"
"..." Yang slowly blinked before turning to where Ruby and the others were hiding, "Uh guys...I don't think we're on Remnant anymore!"
"Knew it!" Jaune exclaimed from his spot on the roof.
"Remnant?" Julie-Su repeated.
"We ran into this white echidna and got pulled into this big glowing ring," Nora explained, "And boy was he a talker. Talk-talk-talk-talk-talka-talk-talk. Did he ever shut up? I mean, honestly, who goes so long just talking? It's really weird and..."
"Nora."
"Yes, Ren?"
"..." Ren poked her nose, making her smile.
"White echidna?" Julie-Su repeated, "And a big glowing ring…" she sighed as Blake jumped down from the roof and Jaune fell with a yelp, landing on his back, "You encountered Dr. Finitevus and followed him into a charged Warp Ring."
"Warp Ring?" Weiss repeated, stabbing the floor and trapping Thrash in a block of ice and making Saffron look at her in shock and awe, "Is that related to this 'Zone' thing that we keep hearing?"
"Yes. A 'Zone' is what we call another universe," Julie-Su explained as she picked up the small sack, "You're currently in what is known as the 'Prime Zone,' the Zone where all others originate from."
"Um...Think of it as a tree," Saffron noted as Julie-Su walked around a large piece of rubble, "The Prime Zone is the base of the tree and all the branches of the tree are different Zones. Your Zone is one of those branches. ...Is...um...Is that better to understand?"
"Kinda, but still too very complicated…" Nora groaned, her eyes swirling as she held her head.
"Great...We got folks from another Zone trapped here in the middle of a war between Albion and Eggman's Dark Egg Legion…" Julie-Su huffed from behind the rubble as her tee, boots, belt, and gloves were now draped over the rubble.
"WAR?!" Jaune exclaimed, "Ah man...D-Did you seriously just say 'war?'" he looked at the others, "Did she seriously just say 'war'?!" he got to his knees to Saffron, "Please tell me she didn't seriously just say 'war.'"
"Um...Sorry, she did," Saffron replied, making Jaune slump.
"...Hold on. Eggman?" Ren spoke.
"That name...does not sound threatening at all," Blake admitted.
"He went by another name before...Robotnik," Julie-Su explained with a frown, "And he's been causing nothing but pain and suffering throughout Mobius."
"Robotnik...More intimidating," Yang noted, "Why not go by that?"
"Blame Sonic for the name," Julie-Su replied as she stepped out from behind the rubble, wearing a full black tee, white gloves, teal shorts, black and teal combat boots that reached just below her knees, and teal-rimmed rectangular sunglasses, "But if you give him an inch, he'll destroy everything close to you. He's already destroyed a world-wide kingdom, slaughtered thousands upon thousands by turning their life force into energy, messed with a god of destruction, nearly caused a space colony to fall on the planet, and far too many other things to list right now."
"FREEZE!"
"And there's the enemy," Julie-Su sighed as they turned to see a group of figures in black cloaks that obscured their faces in shadows heading for them, holding blasters or riding in blocky tanks.
"In the name of the Eggman Empire, drop your weapons and submit to Legionization!" the lead one commanded.
"...What's Legionization?" Ruby quickly whispered to Julie-Su.
"Being turned into a soldier for Eggman's Dark Legion with parts of you replaced with robotics," Julie-Su summarized before the eight looked at her arm and dreadlock, "I am not like them. It is a very long, complicated story."
"Well this is something," the lead one noted, "Two members of the Chaotix with some Overlanders…"
"Uh, sir? They have five fingers."
"Right, right. Humans. Ugh...I miss the days of there being just Overlanders and not that big reveal of how fucked up our planet got 12,000 years back," the lead one grumbled under his breath before clearing his throat, "Well this is something. Two members of the Chaotix with some Humans and...Hey. Who's that in the ice?"
"I believe that's the one called Thrash the Tasmanian Devil," another Legion noted, "He was with the Downunda Freedom Fighters and fought the Downunda Dark Egg Legion. I don't know why he's frozen in a block of ice, though."
"Genocide of the Echidna Race by sending us into an Empty Zone," Julie-Su replied.
"?!" the Dark Egg Legionnaires tensed at that.
"...Men, huddle," the lead one ordered as they huddled on the tank for a few moments.
"I think we got the idiot troops," Saffron whispered.
"Alright, break!" the lead one ordered, "Alright, here's what we're doing! We're catching you all and throwing him into the sea after putting him in a Chaos Drive-powered freezer."
"Oh really?" Julie-Su asked.
"Freezer Burn!" Ruby shouted.
"Free-what?" Julie-Su asked as Yang and Weiss dashed out ahead of them.
Weiss spun her rapier and stabbed down, making a sheet of ice between them and the Dark Egg Legion. Yang jumped up and slammed a fist down on the ice, discharging a shot from her shotgun gauntlet. The ice instantly went up into steam, engulfing the area. By the time the steam faded, the group aside from the frozen Thrash was gone.
"...I think we should've shot first, then debated on what we'd do to the guy that was gonna kill us in a slow and painful death," another noted.
"Can it, dirtbag," the lead one ordered, "Si-mone, I want you to poison Griffon's next rations."
"Yes, Commander," the one that had corrected him earlier sighed.
"And get the Commissar on the line! Tell her we have a guy that was gonna kill us all and request a Chaos Drive-powered freezer," Commander ordered.
"Guh...Stupid hedgehog. Of all times for him to show up," a female echidna with long locks of pink hair, a metal dreadlock like Julie-Su's, and a form-fitting black/purple bodysuit that showed her impressive curves with her upper cleavage exposed muttered, dodging a strike from a blue blur as she sent out an electrified whip at it before saying aloud, "You shouldn't have come here, Sonic. This doesn't concern you."
"Lady, any time Eggman or his goons are oppressing anybody…" the blur noted before jumping at her, revealing it to be a blue hedgehog with bright emerald-green eyes wearing white gloves and red running shoes with white soles, a white strip on the tops, and a gold buckle on both shoes, "...it becomes my business!"
"...heh. Fine...Don't say I didn't warn you," she smirked as she dropped her whip.
"...uh hey. You need that t-WOAH!" Sonic yelped as he barely dodged a whip made of electricity, "Since when could you do that?!"
"When Eggman rebuilt me, did you think he stopped at my pretty face?" the echidna smirked as her eyes had begun to glow an electric blue while her hands were covered in electricity, "I've got too much at stake to let you ruin things now!" she swung her arms, firing blasts at him and forcing him to dodge, "You're dead, hedgehog!"
"You've got a neat trick, I'll give ya that…" Sonic smirked as he dodged the electric blasts, "But it's not enough to stop me!"
"...Maybe not…" the echidna paused before a robotic red echidna crashed in from above, "But he can by swinging things in my favor."
"Oh….yeah that...that might make things harder for me," Sonic admitted before the robotic echidna smacked him away with the back of its clawed-hands, "GAH!"
"Good. N-" she began before her communicator went off, "...ugh...Metal Knuckles, deal with him for me. I need to answer a call."
=Acknowledged= Metal Knuckles replied, banging his silver spiked fists together.
"..." the end of her metal dreadlock opened, revealing a speaker, "What is it?"
=Commissar, we have an issue=
"It's Grandmaster! Get it right!"
=Sorry, Grandmaster ma'am! Uh, well, we have Thrash the Tasmanian Devil from the Downunda Freedom Fighters here...and he, well, he was going to put all the echidnas in Albion into a Zone that's simply a void=
"...What?"
=We managed to chip off enough ice and found he had papers done by Dr. Finitevus about charging his Warp Rings to travel to different Zones. He also scribbled on the back of one of the sheets as a reminder to himself of where he was planning on sending us. To be frank...it's nightmarish and I honestly think Eggman would crack up laughing because he'd find it 'amusing'=
=Tell her about requesting a Chaos Drive-charged freezer so we can dump him in the ocean, Si-Mone!=
"Denied."
=She denied the request! ...Commander is grumbling, Grandmaster. It is understandable given what we've found on him. The only thing he doesn't have are those charged Warp Rings he was going to use=
"...Ugh. Anything else you want to add?" she asked, pinching the bridge of her nose, 'I really don't need this today…'
=...We found some humans. Not Overlanders...Humans=
"...Bullshit."
=No, Grandmaster. They all had five fingers. They were also with Chaotix members Saffron and Julie-Su. And they have a weapon that makes ice, which explains how they encased Thrash in a block of it=
=Ask her if we can shoot this guy's head off!=
"Denied."
=She denied again, sir! ...Commander is grumbling angrily once more, Grandmaster=
"What's wrong? A little...trouble?" Sonic asked before being knocked away by Metal Knuckles once more.
"...Damn it. Eggman's gonna yell at me for not focusing on my mission," the echidna muttered, "...Then again he'd probably change it to 'take out Sonic at all cost!' or something like that…" she held up a hand before sending a blast at Sonic's feet, making him jump in time to be bashed in the face by Metal Knuckles, sending him into a pink hedgehog in a red and white dress and red boots with white stripes and a large mallet in hand just as she was about to hit a glowing blue device coming out of the ground, sending them both into it…
*ZZAP!*
...and collapsed, knocked out and sparking a bit.
"Right then. Listen here," the echidna spoke into her communicator, "Where is your location?"
=Um...Ah. Sector 28 near the docks=
"Based on battle plans we have, there should be a meat shop there with a freezer in it. Throw his frozen butt in there and we'll collect him later. Once you do that, continue rounding up all the Echidnas for Legionization."
=Yes, Grandmaster Lien-Da=
"Good," Lien-Da nodded as she hung up and looking at the two downed hedgehog, "Finally, the tide turns against the meddlesome hedgehog and his friends. They'll make fine members of the Legion...whether they like it or not."
=Do not attribute this solely to your efforts= Metal Knuckles informed =You would have failed if not for Dr. Eggman's technology=
"If Enerjak hadn't stolen our cybernetics with that mystic power of his, I wouldn't have needed Eggman's help," Lien-Da scoffed as her troops subdued the Echidnas fighting them with two managing to grab the two tails of a twin-tailed, yellow-furred fox with big blue eyes and wearing shoes like Sonic's minus the buckles.
=Irrelevant. It was your choice to join the Eggman Empire. Do not forget that nor your place=
'Yeah...and I'm starting to regret it…' Lien-Da thought, 'Still….humans? Actual humans...showing up now of all times? Wh...nevermind. Knowing Eggman, he'd order me to ignore them since they're not Sonic.'
"Okay, so we're stuck in another universe entirely with limited Dust supplies that will last barely a week and even less since we're now in the middle of a war," Ruby noted as the group were hiding in a basement, pacing around, "Said war involves a race of beings called Mobians and there are no Faunus and Overlanders are humans that have four fingers…"
"How is she making those rose petals?" Saffron asked as Ruby went by them in her pacing, leaving behind rose petals that faded away, "They smell really nice. Kinda like...strawberries and chocolate chip cookies."
"We'll explain later," Ruby answered as she walked past her.
"Ah man...I thought it'd be a week of camping to get ready for a tournament…" Jaune sighed, slumped nearby, "I'm not ready for a war…"
"No one is," Ren stated, "But we're here, so what do we do?"
"While I was getting a change of clothes for Julie-Su and I, I did do some recon," Saffron noted, "The city center is being occupied by the main leaders of the enemy forces and they're being led by, of course, Lien-Da. They've been here for the last three days, too."
"Because who else would lead an occupation of Albion, the very home of Echidnas after we've lost ninety percent of our race to Eggman…" Julie-Su muttered before asking aloud, "Anything special to note?"
"Well...Knuckles has a metal him now," Saffron noted, "I saw it at the top of the building."
"Well that's not going to make his head big," Julie-Su rolled her eyes, "Is there anything else you noticed?"
"Well..before coming back, I barely noticed Sonic, Amy, and Tails helping to repel them back."
"They are?" Julie-Su asked, "Huh...Thought they were going after Eggman to catch the roboticized princess."
"It's Sonic," Saffron replied, "You know he'd never turn down a chance to fight for freedom."
"...Eh true," Julie-Su nodded, "Still...we better help them out. Sonic may be tough...but he can't handle both a Metal Knuckles and my sister."
"I-I'm sorry, but did you say sister?" Jaune asked.
"Don't start that up again," Weiss ordered, putting her hands on her hips.
"Right, right. You two know these Dark Egg Legion guys, right?" Ruby asked.
"We do," Julie-Su replied.
"So you know what they use, how they work?"
"A bit, yeah."
"Great! Then maybe we can work something out on how to help," Ruby noted.
"Ruby, we are not g…" Weiss began.
"Aw come on! Those guys saw us, so they probably reported us and now we're wanted folks," Nora noted.
"...That's...true," Jaune noted after a moment of everyone looking at the orangette.
"Like it or not, we've been pulled into this," Blake noted before looking at the two Mobians, "Still...there are issues if you want to get into the fight."
"Huh? What do you…" Julie-Su began before Blake lightly tapped her eye, the same one that was still swollen on Julie-Su's face, "..."
"Oh yeah. You two are still looking like you went against Zwei after I snuck coffee beans into his dog food," Nora noted.
"That was you?!" Yang snapped as said corgi, being held by Saffron, panted happily at remembering that fun day.
"...Uh...no…?"
"Grr…"
"...Ah! I think I-"
=Bark bark!=
"GH?!" Blake tensed at that, her bow almost flying off her head, "Wh...what was that?"
"...That sounded like that T-Pup thing Tails made," Julie-Su noted, carefully going to a small window as she peeked out, seeing a Dark Egg Legionair running away from a small little robot dog only to run into a wall and collapse, knocked out.
=Bark bark!= the small robot dog barked, wagging its fox-like tail.
"Arf arf!" Zwei barked, squirming out of Saffron's hands and jumped onto the windowsill, "Arf!"
=Bark? Bark bark!=
"Arf!"
=Bark!= T-Pup barked as a propeller came out of its back and it flew into the building through the window =Bark!=
"Arf!" Zwei barked before the two spun around each other, sniffing the other's behind.
"...A….r...robot dog?" Blake whispered, twitching nervously for a moment.
"Looks more like a fox," Ren noted.
"Well, it was made by a fox," Saffron noted.
"Aw~! Zwei made a friend," Ruby beamed.
"He must've been guarding something…" Julie-Su noted, "Usually he's seen near Tails, the person who had created him...guess he had him look after whatever he, Sonic, and Amy came here in while they're busy."
=Bark bark!= T-Pup yipped before whimpering at seeing her injuries.
"...Oh, I have an idea~!" Nora cheered as she bounced over to Julie-Su.
"What are you thinking?" Julie-Su asked before Nora put a hand on her chest and the other on her forehead, "?"
"For it is in the thunderstorms that we awaken our inner storms. Through that we gain strength unmatched in both life and death," Nora recited as a pink aura began to come off her...before a magenta one with slivers of red began to come off her, "I release your soul and give it aide in awaking its storm upon all who you face." she removed her hands and beamed, "There we go! And now, I collapse! Blaaarg..." at that, she collapsed.
"...Wh...what just happened?" Julie-su blinked, looking herself over, "What...what did she do to me?"
"Your injuries!" Saffron gasped.
"Huh?" Julie-Su pondered before looking at a nearby mirror in time to see the bruises on her body were fading away and the swelling of her eye was shrinking, "?!"
"Nora just unlocked your Aura," Ruby noted as Ren helped Nora up.
"Ugh...You have a lot…" Nora grumbled, "No one said that lots of aura meant I get sleepy…Renny~ Why didn't you warn me?"
"I am sorry for Nora just doing that without explaining," Pyrrha apologized as Julie-Su kept poking where her bruises had been.
"...What and how?" Julie-Su questioned.
"...would you like the long explanation or the short one?"
"...given what we're dealing with at the moment, short for now…"
"Think of it as an extension of your soul making a protective shield around you that also heals you up when you get hurt," Yang replied, "How do you think I tanked all those punches through walls from big, mean, and ugly back there?"
"...Huh. Noted, "Julie-Su muttered as she patted herself as the aura faded once the last of her injuries were gone, "So..I have some sort of invisible protective shield around me...huh."
"It is finite…" Ren added, "Likewise, you can run out of it even faster if you use it to enhance your combat abilities."
"...Now I'm scared to see what would happen if Sonic got his unlocked," Julie-Su admitted before shaking her head, "N-Nevermind. For now, we need to make a plan."
"Well we have one big advantage," Ruby noted, "Pyrrha!"
"Huh?" Julie-Su asked as she looked at the redhead.
"Oh yeah…" Jaune spoke, "You said that these Dark Egg Legion guys all have machines in them or visible like yours, right? Pyrrha, can you show them what you can do?"
"Very well," Pyrrha nodded as she took out her xiphos and put it on the table before walking away from it and held her hand up...before the xiphos shot off and into her hand, "With Aura, you also gain something known as a Semblance. For me, it comes in the form of polarity."
"...like a magnet?" Saffron asked.
"More or less, yes."
"...Had us worried for a moment there…" Julie-Su muttered, her hand moving away from her blaster, "One technomage was bad enough…"
=What?! You caught Sonic?!=
"Yes, sir. And his friends…" Lien-Da nodded into her communicator, "I suppose you want us t-"
=No...make him watch as his friends become Legionnaires before his very eyes, give him more to worry about! Make him feel like he failed to save his friends!=
"...and you're sure that won't backfire in any way possible?"
=Of course not! He broke me...so I'll slowly break him! And once he breaks...I can resume my conquest of Mobius!=
"Got it," Lien-Da replied as he hung up, "...This is gonna backfire. I just know it." she changed channels, "Status report."
=The last of the citizens have been recaptured. Returning to command for Legionization=
"Good. Keep an eye out for anything suspicious," she ordered as she hung up, turning to look at Sonic and his group tied up in ropes with Metal Knuckles looking over them, "You've given the Dark Legion quite enough trouble…"
"And I'll keep giving you trouble," Sonic snorted, "And can I file a complaint? Why are they tied in ropes and me in chains?"
=Lack of energy restraints due to unexpected presence of Team Fighters=
"That and we know you've used your spines before to tear rope apart," Lien-Da noted, "And a bit of good news for you: you'll be the very last one that will be Legionized, hedgehog."
"...Eggman ordered that?" Sonic asked with a frown.
"Who else?" Lien-Da scoffed, "He wants you to suffer...most likely make you relive what happened to the princess."
"..."
"Oh? Hit a nerve did I?" she smirked a bit, "Well...least we c-"
*BAM!*
"Ow!" Lien-Da winced, holding her cheek as she stepped back from Metal Knuckles, "What the hell was that for?!"
=...That was not my doing=
"Huh?" Lien-Da raised a brow before barely dodging another strike from the metal echidna, "?!"
=Analysis leads to one believing I am doing this on programming. Analysis is in error= Metal Knuckles informed, doing another strike.
"Is there a technomancer here?" Lien-Da pondered, "...The Iron Legion didn't defect, did they?"
"..." Sonic said nothing as he carefully eyed the area before spotting something, "...Don't look behind ya."
"Huh?" Lien-Da raised a brow before narrowly avoiding some shots from behind, "?! You brought back-up?!"
"Nope," Sonic smirked.
"Then who...the humans…" she whispered in realization.
"Humans?" the pink hedgehog repeated before a red blur shot past the tied up trio, their chains and ropes falling apart while a trail of rose petals were left behind, "?!"
"GH?!" Lien-Da tensed before quickly firing an electric blast at the blur, only for it to swerve around it before stopping behind her, "..."
"Oh wow! Now that I have a better look at you, you're really cool looking!" Ruby noted, looking over Metal Knuckles, "Not a welding point out of place, not a bolt left untightened, and your maker really paid attention to details about Echidnas, huh?"
"...H-Hold on. Wh-" Lien-Da began.
=Terminating possible threat...= Metal Knuckles began as it tried to move, only to barely move an inch =...still cannot attack…=
"Yep," Ruby smiled before spinning around to Lien-Da, her scythe behind her back, "So...Wow, you look almost like Julie-Su." the head of Metal Knuckles slid off its body, "Wow. Guess you're her big sister that doesn't like her, huh?"
"...What?!" Lien-Da exclaimed, "Wait...my sister is...Ahh! Damn it…" she facepalmed.
"Oh, and uh...Freezer Burn!" Ruby shouted.
"Freezer wh…" Lien-Da began to ask before a sheet of ice separated the two before a yellow blur slammed down onto the ice, making a cloud of steam, "Gh?!"
"Nice work, Pyrrha," Ruby quietly called out to the red head, "Now l-" she quickly noticed electricity looming in the air, "...uh oh."
"GRRRAGH!" Lien-Da roared out as she slammed her hands on the ground, causing a large shockwave of electricity to knock everyone over and dispersing the steam cloud, "Oh no you don't...I've seen this type of tactic used before."
"Oh this isn't good," Pyrrha noted from her position out of sight.
"Ooh~! She's all sparky!" Nora beamed, "I got this!"
"No, wait, Nora!" Jaune yelped before the orangette jumped out and whipped out her hammer as it shifted into a grenade launcher and fired a round at Lien-Da, going off in a pink explosion after she shot it in mid-flight.
"Oh great. Another one," Lien-Da growled before shooting an electric blast at Nora...who took it head on, "And it's an idiot, too."
"Ah! Is she okay?" the pink hedgehog gasped as Nora staggered back...before grinning as she shifted her grenade launcher back into a hammer.
"SMASH!" Nora roared as she jumped and swung her hammer down at Lien-Da, making her dodge as the hammer hit the ground and cratered it, "Whoo! Now that's some spicy electricity! Way more than the time I unlocked my Semblance when I got hit by that lightning bolt!"
"...Ren…" Jaune began slowly.
"She can feel the pain from the shocks, but it only makes her stronger," Ren explained.
"Oh…"
"Wait...so my attacks w…" Lien-Da began, overhearing that before dodging another swing from Nora's hammer, "...Damn it."
"What is going on out there?" an echidna with a tuff of black hair in a ranger outfit questioned, locked up in one of several cages with a multitude of other Echidnas, the one he was in shared with a married couple and a baby echidna in yellow footy pajamas.
"I'm not sure, Remington," the mother of the couple noted as they head another explosion going off, "Perhaps reinforcements?"
"Mmm…" the baby fussed before looking up, "Ki-ki!"
"Huh?" the father looked at the child, who was babbling while reaching upwards, "Kneecaps, what's…?" Blake landed before their cell, "?! Who…"
"No time," Blake informed, pulling out her gun and shot the lock of the cell before opening it followed by moving past the trio of adults, a set of rings on their wrists falling off and sparked from the torn circuits inside, "We're here to rescue you all."
"We?" Remington repeated as Julie-Su dropped down with Saffron.
"Shh. Everything will be alright," Julie-Su quietly added.
"We're here to help," Saffron added, holding up a ring of keys, all numbered, "We couldn't find the one for your cage, but Blake seems to have found a way around it."
"Thank you, girls," the mother thanked as Kneecaps babbled happily, reaching out to Julie-Su.
"Ju-Ju!"
"Aw...Hey, Kneecaps," Julie-Su greeted, petting the infant's head, "Come on. We need to get these cages unlocked and people to evac."
"Is my son with you girls?" the mother asked.
"No. Knuckles isn't here yet," Julie-Su replied, "We're only here because of us getting ambushed and thrown into an empty Zone. The only reason we escaped was because of Blake and her friends showing up and taking care of the guy who sent us to it."
"I've been trying to get a signal sent out, but no luck," Saffron added.
"They must've set something up to block radio signals…" Julie-Su noted, "How long has the Dark Egg Legion been here?"
"Three days now," Remington replied as the husband took some of the keys to start helping unlock cages, "I was leading the defenses until I was captured earlier today with the others. They managed to repair the security defenses in this building and used it to stun us." another explosion was heard, "And what is going on out there?"
"Either someone touched Yang's hair, someone gave...ugh...Zwei Dust, or Weiss shook an entire bottle of Fire Dust in Ruby's face again and she sneezed," Blake noted as she moved quickly to open cages and cutting off the restraints on the Echidnas.
"We'll explain some time later," Julie-Su answered to the more confused Echidnas before the doors opened and several Dark Egg Legion troops ran in.
"Intruders! They're freeing the prisoners!" one exclaimed.
"Hurry! Turn on the security systems!" another ordered.
"Sure th…" a third began as they spun around to see a Warp Ring, "Uh oh." a spiked glove slammed into their face, sending them sailing over the entire room to crash through a wall, leaving an echidna-shaped hole, "...I'm okay…"
Stepping out of the portal was a red male echidna. He had a white crest mark on his chest and wore bulky red shoes with a white band, a green ring, and a metal plate with raised bumps on them. His gloves looked more like boxing gloves with two spikes on the back of his fists. His purple eyes looked out at the caged echidnas, then to the couple, and then at the Dark Egg Legion and proceeded to narrow as he cracked his knuckles.
"Alright...I am livid," he growled before grabbing the two and bashed their heads hard against one another, knocking them out.
"...Is that…?" Blake began.
"Na-Na!" Kneecaps shouted happily, reaching out to the echidna.
"Hey, Knuckles! What took ya?" Julie-Su asked.
"Where did you two go? I looked all over Angel Island for you both to get here," Knuckles demanded as he ran up to her, "Why didn't you tell me you two were already here?"
"Thrash happened…" Julie-Su sighed, "He tried to banish me and the rest of the Echidnas into an Empty Zone to slowly starve us to death..and Saffron was along for the 'ride'."
"WHAT?!" Knuckles exclaimed, "Where is that Tasmanian Devil?! I'm gonna…"
"Oh, some new friends put him on literal ice!" Saffron replied as she motioned to Blake.
"Hm?" Knuckles raised a brow at the Faunus.
"It's a complicated story and not enough time," Blake replied as her bow subtly twitched, 'Why are so many of them whispering and referring to him as 'Avatar'?'
"...Fair enough," Knuckles nodded, "Alright, anyone good enough to keep fighting, come with me and Julie-Su. Everyone else, barricade the room and disable the security system in here."
"Do as the Avatar says! He will lead us to deliverance, as Aurora has long foretold!" one Echidna in blue robes called, causing Knuckles' eye to twitch.
"For the last time, I am not the Avatar! I'm definitely not your savior!" Knuckles snapped before turning away and walking off, whispering, "...Not anymore…I ruined everything..."
"So your name's Ruby Rose, huh? Explains the petals," Sonic noted as he jumped over a cannon shot and slammed into the tank that fired it, bending the barrel of the tank, "Any chance you're related to my pal Amy over there?"
"Huh?" Ruby pondered as she looked over at the pink hedgehog slamming several Dark Egg Legion troops with her hammer, making a distinct 'PIKO' sound when it hit them.
"Well, you both have 'Rose' for your last name."
"No, I don't think so. We're from another universe," Ruby noted.
"Ah, a traveller from another Zone, eh? How you avoided the Zone Cops is anyone's guess," Sonic noted as he backflipped over a trooper before smashing them on the head with the heel of his shoe.
"Well, I kinda shot this giant glowy ring this white echidna made and it sucked us up," Ruby explained, using her scythe/rifle to shoot the ground, the recoil sending her over a pair of troops that tried to tackle her only to tackle each other.
"You shot a charged Warp Ring? Heh. If I liked using guns, I'd probably do the same thing, but I'm more of a close quarters kinda guy," Sonic shrugged, doing a roundhouse on one that tried to jump him from behind.
"Haven't known him for long, and already I feel he's the 'hit first and ask questions later' type of person," Weiss sighed, summoning a glyph to deflect some lasers.
"SMASH!" Nora shouted, slamming her hammer once more at Lien-Da, who jumped out of the way and caused her to strike the tank with a bent barrel, shattering it.
'Why does things like this always happen when that hedgehog is involved?!' Lien-Da thought in annoyance, glancing to see Pyrrha surrounded by several of her troops.
"We got her surrounded, men! Don't let h-" one of the Leggionairs began.
"S-sir! We're suddenly moving on our own!"
"Huh? What are you…" he began before noticing he and the ones surrounding Pyrrha were in the air, her hands raised up, "...AHH! Not another Iron Queen!"
"I don't know who that is, but you shouldn't use metal against me," Pyrrha noted before throwing her arms outwards, sending them all flying over the walls of the building's perimeter, 'It's good that those cloaks they wear have metal lining them.' she checked her Scroll for a moment, 'I'm good to do that amount for a bit depending on if they all wear roughly the same. Still, it's better if I don't.'
'...That wasn't technomancy. That...wait. When Metal Knuckles was unable to move earlier, was...magnetism?' Lien-Da thought before jumping out of the way of another hammer strike, '...Just who or what are these humans!?' "Men, w-"
=Negative= Metal Knuckles's head spoke =The mission must be completed, and the hedgehog terminated=
"I'd like to point out that you're currently a head," Lien-Da countered, scooping it up as she dodged another swing of Nora's hammer.
=Find my body, and I will disable the humanoids' abilities=
"Ugh...I swear Eggman is infecting you with h-" Lien-Da began as she turned, only to blink for a moment, "...wait. Wh...where'd your body go?"
=Unknown= Metal Knuckles replied before his optics flashed =Motion detected in current main base for occupation. Multiple sources=
"Wha…" Lien-Da began before the doors to the building were blasted off their hinges, sending several DEL troops flying out of it and crash land across the yard, "Shit! They ran a distraction!" she jumped over Nora's latest swing and quickly jumped over her, making sure to jump off her head to do so, and looked to see her troops being overrun by echidnas lead by Knuckles, "Aw great...He's here, too?" she held up Metal Knuckles' head, "Let me guess, you still want to remain?"
=Processing odds of victory...eight percent. Suggestion...tactical retreat= he suggested before shutting down.
"...Guess he programmed you to shut down if you 'showed any weakness,'" Lien-Da muttered as she grit her teeth, 'Dammit...Guess my unification of all Echidnas under one rule will have to await.' she thought before turning to her troops, "Men, fallback! This mission was a bust!"
"But...lord Eggman…"
"Let him complain! He'll mostly curse Sonic anyway!" Lien-Da barked, making her metal dreadlock activate as she backflipped over a laser shot by Julie-Su, "Troops, mission failed. Evacuate Albion at once." she looked at the pink Echidna, "As much as I'd enjoy 'talking,' sister, I have other things to do."
"You…" Julie-Su began before Lien-Da held her free hand to the side, palm facing down, "?"
Lien-Da's eyes sparked along with her hand before firing a blast at the ground, making a dirt cloud explosion. By the time the dirt cloud dissipated, the DEL troops were gone. The only signs of their presence being the destroyed remains of their vehicles and weapons that had been broken by shots fired by the humans there.
"...Well. Guess they did the smart thing for once…" Sonic muttered, "...Though I bet ol' Eggy is gonna be livid at the flopped mission...and blame me for it failing."
"Does that happen often?" Ruby asked.
"Eh. 99% of the time," Sonic shrugged, "He just disregards everyone else. Has been since he came back after his noggin broke after this one fight."
"Wait, what?" Weiss blinked.
"We're alive!" Jaune exclaimed in relief, his shield littered in dents and scorch marks, "Oh thank the gods…"
"Though we may be in for other things," Ren noted, looking over at the native echidnas looking at them all.
"Oh, right…" Ruby cringed, 'Well...I was hoping for an adventure during the camping trip.'
GT: Well, already we've put screws into plans. I just love the 'For Want of A Nail' troping when it leads to good things. In this case? Because Finitevus decided to go Zone 'Sightseeing,' he encountered Remnant and the Grimm. Because he encountered Remnant and the Grimm, he tried to capture them for study. Because he was trying to catch them, he encountered Huntsmen-In-Training. Because of that encounter, he tried to escape only for his escape to be shot at. Because his escape got shot, it broke and sucked them all into it. Because of it appearing in Albion, Thrash's attempt to deal with the Echidnas got thwarted.
SZ: Aye, and I am excited to see what happens as we move this story along. Oh and before you ask(but what of the post reboot characters and the IDW Characters?)
GT: Eh, trust us. You'll be surprised at what happens. After all, this isn't the Prime Zone of Archie Comics. While it does have similar timelines, other things will be different which will be revealed as this story goes along. 'Till the next chapter, please read and review!